A Ruined Picnic
by MerlinianTardis
Summary: The Doctor, Rose, Jackie and Mickey is having picnic on another planet and Rose and the Doctor deside to take a walk after they've finished eating. A walk that doesn't end too well


"We should do this more often, but without the others," Rose said, smiling up at the Doctor, giving a nod towards where Jackie and Mickey were. She and the Doctor had decided to take a walk and the other two had decided to wait by the TARDIS. Too tired after the food to move the slightest, they had said. But Rose and the Doctor didn't complain because it only meant they had time for themselves.

"What?" he answered a bit absently, staring up at the bright sky.

"Having picnics!" she laughed.

"Oh… yeah!" finally back to reality. "I know a really good place we could go to. With really amazing sunsets, suns so big you would never believe it," he grinned. "Making the sky orange and pink and the ocean sparkle and…"

"Please take me there!" she crooked arms with him. She held onto it tightly, shooting him puppy eyes.

"Don't give me those eyes, they won't wor… are not going to w…wo… yes, yes. We can go there, but's not because of those eyes!" He tried no look at her and instead he pulled is arm out of her grip and put it around her waist and she leaned against him.

"It is the eyes," she said convincingly. "Hey, what's that thing over there?"

"What?"

"There," she pointed at a gathering of trees and bushes. "It was just over there, some black shadow or something," she explained. "There it is again!"

This time the Doctor also saw it. He grabbed her hand. "Let's find out what it is shall we?" They started running towards where they had seen the shadowy thing. It had disappeared again but Rose thought it was probably just hiding in the bushes. A feeling started to grow inside of her. Something was wrong but she couldn't put a finger on what it was. But she couldn't get rid of it either and it only grew stronger.

"DOCTOR!" she screamed and the ground collapsed underneath them. The Doctor, who was in front of her, stumbled when the ground had started shaking and he fell head first when it disappeared. She managed to get a grip on a stone pointing out a metre or so below the ground surface. She held onto to it for dear life. "Doctor!" she called. She didn't get an answer. So terrified she couldn't breathe; she looked down. He was lying on his stomach maybe ten metres underneath her and he didn't seem to move at all. "Doctor!" she screamed again. Tears filled her eyes. This time he groaned lowly. "Rose?" he groaned again and rolled to his back. Whatever he was lying on gave a threatening creak. "Don't move, or it will collapse!" she told him. Her arms started to grow tired and ache from holding the stone. She looked down at him again. She couldn't see him very clearly, there wasn't much light down there but he was lying still on his back with his face covered by his hand. But he was lying still, so he was aware of the problem.

"Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," came the answer after a few seconds, but she could hear he was in pain. "You?"

"I'm fine, but I don't think I could hold on anymore," her arms had started to burn with pain.

"Are you able to climb up?" he asked.

"Maybe, I don't know… I can try." She tried to reach for the roots and stones above her but they were too loose and fell away when she gripped them.

"It's all sitting too loose. I can't!" she complained.

"Yes you can. You must be able to. If I move the slightest this floor will probably collapse,"

"No pressure at all then, you sure you are alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Don't you worry about me," she could hear that wasn't completely true. He always said he was fine, even when I wasn't, and there was a trace of pain in his voice.

She started climbing again and saw a root that didn't seem to sit all too loose. But it was very high up and she had to really stretch her arm to reach it. But she could only feel it with the tops of her fingers. It was too far away for her to wrap her fingers around it. She tried to find support for her feet but the stones only fell off and she found herself kicking desperately against the wall.

"Take it easy up there will you? Don't want you to fall."

"Oh I'm sorry I'm trying get up from here to go bring help!" she sneered. She tried again for the root and this time she got her fingers around it. She laughed in triumph but it soon turned into a fearful gasp as the root tore loose and she lost the grip from her stone. With a scream she fell down.

"Rose!" the Doctor shouted and she landed beside him. Pain went throughher left leg. The floor underneath them creaked loudly. She felt it bend under her weight.

"Doctor!" she now saw him more clearly. He had his eyes closed and was slowly rubbing his temples and forehead. And there was blood on his face. He had a cut in the forehead over his left brow. It wasn't bleeding very heavy but there was still a lot of blood.

"Don't move!"

"But…you're bleeding," she protested.

"If this floor brakes we have more than a cut on my head to be concerned about," he muttered.

"So we're just going to sit still here? Without moving?"

"Until we come up with a plan which takes us up from here,"

"Do you really have any plan?"

"Do I ever have a plan?"

"So, nothing?

"Nothing," he confirmed. "Or we could very slowly and very carefully move to wall. Not on our feet!" she stopped in her attempt to rise and sat down again. The floor creaked. "We should slowly and carefully crawl to the walls. It will be more pressure on the floor if we walk on it," he explained.

"Then what?"

"We climb,"

"How are you supposed to be able to climb with your head injury if I'm not able to do it?"

"It's just an idea,"

She didn't answer, even though she wanted to. His plan was a ridiculous plan but it was also the best plan they had.

She sighed and massaged her left ankle.

"You alright?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, think I just sprained my ankle in the fall. It's starting to swell now." Her voice was a bit shaky, but she tried to keep it stable. She didn't want to cry in front of the Doctor because of a small injury but it ached something terrible.

"Try take of the shoe before it gets too swollen." He advised. "It won't be that much pressure and we won't have to cut off the shoe after we get out from here."

As he said, she carefully untied the shoe. She whimpered in pain when took it off. It was hard not making any sudden moves and the floor creaked loudly, but the shoe was sitting tight around her swollen foot, and even when the shoelaces were completely loose, she still had problems getting the shoe off. She could almost hear the Doctor, as he bit his lips from not telling her to be more still. When she finally got her shoe off, her body tilted backwards. The floor creaked a final time and she instinctively rolled aside to the other side. While doing so she unconsciously she grabbed the Doctor's arm dragging him to the middle of the floor as it collapsed. But she was holding it so hard so when he fell she fell too. She didn't know how far they fell and she wasn't screaming, well she screamed but it was like a soundless scream, like when all the air disappears from your lungs like when you're riding those roller coasters at amusement parks that falls right down. Then she hit the surface of cold water. It was deep; she sank several metres without hitting the bottom. When they fell she had lost her grip of the Doctor's arm but she had seen where he had landed in the water so she had an idea where he was, so she swam towards that direction. He seemed to be thinking the same thing because they met halfway and together they helped each other up to the surface again.

"Damn it Rose!" the Doctor glared at her.

"Sorry! I tried to be careful but… now my shoe's gone!" she complained.

"Not that, you dislocated my shoulder," he said. "Hold my arm how much you like but don't pull so hard. I'm 900 years old and not a toy you can treat however you want."

"Sorry," she bit her lip. But she looked furtively at him, close to smiling. He wasn't angry at her or so, even though he wanted to sound like he was, she heard on his voice that he wasn't.

"There's some driftwood over there," she helped him to the shattered pieces of the floor. He rested his head on it, supported by his healthy arm.

"Don't fall asleep!" she said.

"Not planning to," he answered.

"No, but injured people are always told not to fall asleep."

"I have a dislocated shoulder and maybe a small concussion and I'm not even tired. And I have my screwdriver. It can heal smaller injuries. It's just here somewhere in my pocket." He had to let go of the driftwood to search for it. His dislocated shoulder was pretty useless and he had to tramp water in order to stay above surface.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no!"

"What?"

"I can't find it! Must have dropped it or something. Probably down there at the bottom."

"How bad is that?"

"Not so bad, I can easily make a new one back at the TARDIS, but thing is, I loved my screwdriver."

"So what happens now?"

"You have to pull my shoulder back."

"What? No, I can't do that, no!"

"You can and you will. I'll fix your ankle as soon as we come back to the TARDIS. Would have fixed it right now if I could, but I don't have magic healing powers in my hands, but you can pull my shoulder back. I tell you how to do it."

"But…"

"Just do it Rose!"

He instructed her where to put her hands and how to pull the shoulder. "Count to three?" she asked.

"Just do it!"

She counted anyway, but it was not only for his sake, she did it for herself to, like a mental preparation, or something like that. The moment she got to three she pulled. She had her eyes closed tightly and screamed when the shoulder popped as it came back to place and he screamed in pain. Then he became limp in her arms and she feared he had passed out. She knew dislocations caused an awful lot of pain and when Mickey dislocated his knee a couple of years ago while playing football he had fainted when his friend pulled the knee back.

"Doctor?"

But then he moved and leaned at the driftwood.

"You okay?" she asked, a bit shaken.

"Yeah, yeah," he answered. "You did well."

She moved over to his side to face him. His brown eyes met hers. Those old brown eyes so full of wisdom. She loved looking into his eyes and just drown in their depth. He gave her a faint smile. "Really. Don't look so frightened. How's your foot?"

"Heck with my foot Doctor! I just pulled your shoulder back. I felt it move and it sounded horrible and all you care about is my foot!"

"Rose, I'm over 900 years old. I've dealt with injuries before. And I'm a Time Lord, different DNA than you. I heal quicker.

"That doesn't make you care more about my foot than your head and shoulder." She objected.

"Yes it does. I'm the Doctor. Now, how's your foot?"

"It's fine." She was quiet for a few seconds. "It's a bit cold though."

"Move your arms and legs to keep the warmth up," the Doctor advised.

She did as he told but it didn't help very much. He himself didn't move. He just looked around, sometimes at her, sometimes somewhere else, holding his gaze still a few seconds on everything.

"Shouldn't you be moving too?" she asked.

"I'm not the one who's freezing, and I can handle much lower temperatures without problems," he answered.

"But so you don't fall asleep or anything."

"I won't fall asleep Rose. I'm not even tired." His look told her not to keep arguing.

"It's getting dark," she commented.

"So it does," he looked up too.

"Do you think they'll find us?" her voice suddenly became very small.

"Of course I do. They're both smart and would know something have happened since we haven't returned. They're probably looking for us right now."

"But it's dark."

"Yepp."

"And they wouldn't even look here,"

"Well they can't go anywhere, can they? Is not like they know how to drive the TARDIS or so. Eventually they'll find us."

"Hope you're right." She didn't know how he could be so calm about it.

"Come here," He put his arm around her and pulled her closer to himself.

"Hey look. You can see the moon even from down here. Oh isn't it gorgeous?" he said with that voice when he talked about or to something he found fascinating.

She looked up and he was right. The moon was so big and bright, and not that cold brightness as the one on earth, no this one had this warm yellow glow. "It's beautiful," she agreed. Even the stars looked different from the ones on Earth. These were much bigger. "Do you know any star signs?" she asked and pointed at the stars.

"Well, just up there, a little left to the moon you can see the Cripple. It's called that because its looks like a man with a stick. Together with three other signs the Cripple make up a sign called Alfha. It's the biggest star sign on this planet.

"Well aren't they creative with names."

"Hmm?"

"Everyone knows alpha is from the Greek's alphabet and stands for first."

"Oh not alpha, it's alf-ha and means glory. Totally different from the Greek's alpha."

"So is the second largest called bet-ha or what?"

Instead of answering her, the Doctor started shaking. At first she got scared but then he heard his small noises and realised he was giggling.

"What's so funny?" she asked puzzled.

He only laughed harder.

"Really, stop it. What's so funny?"

"Really, never say that to one of the inhabitants here. It's very rude." He finally managed to say between his giggling.

"What did I say?"

"Oh no, I can't. It's too rude."

"Really? It's seems that you find it too hilarious," Rose commented.

"Well it is."

"Come on tell me."

"Oh… okay… saying that you would call them… no really, no. I can't… oh well okay. It's means they are a slitheen bum sucker. And they hate slitheens, long story. But can you imagine licking a slitheen's butt?" He burst out in laughter again.

She wrinkled her nose by the mental image popping up inside her head, "Okay…. I think you hit your head a little bit too hard…"

"Probably, but for your record, the sign is called sen-ga, which means the impudent."

"Because it's a slitheen butt licker, or what?"

"No, not really," although she could hear on his voice he found the idea amusing, "but it have something to do with love affairs and stuff."

"With a slitheen,"

"No, a ghost actually,"

"Of a slitheen,"

"Will you stop it already? Blimey what a story that would have been, the beautiful princess and the ghost of the slitheen." He started giggle again.

"What if we die in here? And turn into ghosts, and get lost up there? Will you search for me then?" she suddenly turned serious.

"Of course I will," he gave her hair a light kiss, "and we are not going to die here." He assured her.

"But it's in the middle of the night. How are they supposed to see us down here, even if they look down here?"

"If they're smart they'll call out to see if we're here."

"Should we shout? Maybe they'll hear us."

"I don't think that would help."

"But we could at least try," she said stubbornly. "Hello? Anyone up there? HELP!" her scream echoed rather eerie as it ran upwards to the surface.

"And now I'm deaf. Seriously Rose. You have some strong lungs."

"Thanks."

"Sorry, can't hear you since you made me deaf."

"I know very well you heard me."

"And how can you be so sure about that?" even though she couldn't see his face she knew he was smirking.

"Well you must have heard me, since you responding," she pointed out.

"Time Lord, telepathy."

"Do you enjoy teasing me?" she muttered and glowered at him.

"Well it keeps you away from thinking we're stuck here."

"Did you think they heard me?"

"I don't know. The shouts may have drowned out before reaching the surface, and if it reached out, they may have been too far away to hear you."

"What happened to the 'oh don't worry they'll find us' talk?"

"Well, they will find us."

"How can you even be so sure about that?"

"Hey…" he hugged her tighter to himself. "We didn't come too far from the others and since when am I ever wrong?"

"Very often actually," she remarked.

"But have you ever doubted me?"

"No,"

"Then trust me in that they will find us."

"Hello? Rose? Doctor, are you down there?" screamed a familiar voice suddenly high above them. They looked up to see Jackie and Mickey peeking down. Beside Mickey was a third shape Rose couldn't make out what it was.

"See, told you," the Doctor said. "And now I know where you got your strong lungs from." He commented on Jackie's shout.

"Yes! We're here!" Rose screamed back.

"Hold on!" Jackie shouted.

A few seconds later a big rope was flung down to them.

"Tie it around your bodies!" Mickey instructed. The Doctor took the rope and began to pull it around Rose but she tried to push his arms away. "What are you doing?"

"Like he said, tying it around you so that they can drag you up."

"No, you first!" she objected. "I'm not going to leave you alone down here!"

"I'll be fine, Rose. It just a couple of minutes," he smiled.

"But…"

"No buts. Okay she's secured now. Drag her up!" he shouted up to the others.

"No!" Rose objected, but they had already started to haul her upwards. She clenched her hands around the rope and looked down at the Doctor.

"I'll be fine Rose!" she assured her.

It went a lot quicker than she thought for them do drag her up. As soon she was up on the surface again she struggled to unknot the rope, god the Doctor was good on knots. "I can't get it undone!" she cried. She pushed away Jackie when she tried to hug her. "Get this knot off!" she said instead. The stranger was immediately there and untied it without any problems. As soon as it was off she threw the rope down to the Doctor. Then she let Jackie start hugging her. "Mum, are you crying?"

"I thought I would never see you again!" Jackie sobbed. "And you are crying too sweetheart,"

She was crying, and a lot too. "I was so scared mum!" she confessed.

"Oh it's you! We tried to follow you, you know," the Doctor suddenly said. Rose turned around to see him beaming at the stranger. She then looked at it closer. It looked rather human but had some alien characteristics. The skin was dark and sort of a mud shade of brown and it wasn't soft but knotty. And it had clear jade green eyes.

"How'd you find us?" she asked her mum and Mickey.

"Well we got kind of worried when you two never showed up and we started looking, without any result and then we ran into this guy who told he could help us; that he knew where you were." Mickey said. The creature nodded eagerly as to prove Mickey told the truth.

"He spoke English?" Rose raised her eyebrows.

"No, you forgetting the TARDIS translates everything," the Doctor said.

"Oh, right yeah," How could she be so stupid to forget that?

"We never meant to scare you, we just wanted to talk," the Doctor told the creature, "We scared him," he explained to Rose. "He didn't know we weren't going to do any harm and when he saw what happened he tried to look for help by Jackie and Mickey. But when he had come to the TARDIS they were gone. When he found them he had some difficulties explaining what had happened."

"Yeah, he was doing a lot of gesticulating," Mickey said.

"He didn't know you had the TARDIS translating for you,"

"I feel awful for what happened," the creature said. "Let me invite you to dinner with my family," as always, Rose found it a bit strange to hear alien forms speak English, and not their real language.

"Oh you don't have to,"

"But I insist,"

"We'd love to come," Jackie said, she then turned to the Doctor, "Sweetheart, what have you done to your face?" Jackie turned to the Doctor.

"Just a scratch, I'm fine. But we better take Rose to the TARDIS, she sprained her ankle pretty badly." And by those words he went to her where she was sitting massaging her ankle and lifted her up in his arms. His gentlemanly made her giggle but then she became serious when she realised he was going to carry her all the way to the TARDIS, "but Doctor, your shoulder…" she protested.

"It'll be fine, I have two feet to walk on, and you don't"

"But I could just have supported on someone's shoulder."

"Maybe, but this way is faster."

"But Mickey could carry me too, he doesn't have an injured shoulder," she pointed out.

"Yeah but he would most likely be tired after a few metres."

"Oi!" Mickey protested.

"Face the truth Mickey. You wouldn't hold on all the way to the TARDIS."

"I would!" Mickey muttered.

Rose leaned her head against the Doctor's shoulder and started playing with his tie with her fingers.

Back in the TARDIS the Doctor carried her to the medical bay and put her on the bed. He muttered to himself as he searched through the cabinets. "There you are!" he finally shouted in triumphantly and returned to her. In his hand he carried bandages, but they weren't white as ordinary bandages. These were in the colour blue.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Healing bandages," the Doctor explained. "While wearing it, they will heal ones injury. When the colour has disappeared from them, it means the injury is healed.

"Cool!" she said.

Carefully the Doctor rolled up the sleeve on her jeans. Then he rolled the bandages around her ankle with quick and firm hands.

"It will take a while for it to heal though," he said and went to another cabinet and pulled out a couple of crutches, "so you may need these." Playfully he put his hands on the handles and lifted his feet from the floor, walking around by using the crutches. He tried to walk up by that up the stairs to the consoles but he failed and ended up sprawled on the floor, giggling to himself.

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head a bit too hard?" Rose asked.

"Maybe," he said.

She sighed and jumped on one leg to him and took the crutches before he took them again. Then she seated herself beside him in the stairs.

"What a day, she said."

"Yeah, but we made it through it."

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Next time we're on a picnic, let's bring others too."

"Deal,"

He put his arm around her shoulder. They were quiet for a few seconds but then they cast a glance upon each other and they just couldn't hold it any longer and both burst out into laughter. It felt very relieving after this long day and once she had begun, Rose found that she couldn't stop. Then the Doctor, without any warning, kissed her on her mouth. He placed his hands around her head, burying his fingers into her still wet hair. She responded by pulling him closer to herself. He lifted her up, starting to walk towards the bedrooms, and she locked her legs around his waist.

"My room is closer," she breathed between their kissing while untying his tie with one hand and placed the other around his neck.

"Oh I'm so sorry," Mickey suddenly said "But we're wondering when you will come out and join us."

Oh god, Rose thought. She hadn't heard him open the door. Awkwardly she slid down from the Doctor onto the floor.

"We'll be there in a few… ten minutes… fifteen…" the Doctor said, changing his mind when Rose poked him in the side. "We'll just going to… fix some stuff… it'll probably take 20 minutes… no 25… oh let's say 30 minutes."

"Okay," Mickey loomed out. The Doctor clicked with his fingers. "Now, the TARDIS is locked so we won't be disturbed anymore. Where were we? Oh yeah right kissing…" his mouth found its way back to hers and he carried her to her bedroom, closing that door behind them too, just to be on the safe side.

* * *

**A/N: This was actually something i wrote maybe a year ago, but haven't had the courage to publish until now. **

**Also a huge thanks to WistfulGallifreyan for reading and beta:ing this, you're the best!**


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